Book Beginning: Hot Season by Susan DeFreitas

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

When Katie met Huckleberry, he was juggling on the curb at the end of Second Street with a rose between his teeth.

Hot Season by Susan DeFreitas. This debut novel is already generating a lot of buzz from the likes of Huffington Post, Book Nudge, and and some pretty cool authors, including comparisons to Donna Tartt's campus novel, The Secret History.

Susan DeFreitas will be presenting on “The Small Press Publishing Landscape” at Tsunami Books in Eugene, Oregon on April 2, 2017. Check the Tsunami Books website for more details.

Teaser Tuesday: Cat's Paw by Mollie Hunt

Accompanied by a clowder of hungry cats, I made for the kitchen. Coffee and cat food, my morning routine, only today it was a little later than usual.

Cat's Paw by Mollie Hunt. This third Crazy Cat Lady mystery finds our cat loving amateur sleuth Lynley Cannon volunteering at the Cloverleaf Animal Sanctuary in the San Juan Islands -- and trying to prove she didn't commit a double homicide!

Cat's Eyes and Copy Cats are the first two books in this must-read, cat-themed cozy series set in the Pacific Northwest.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: Hot Season by Susan DeFreitas

One HOT new book came into my house last week and I am excited to get it! What books came into your house last week?



Hot Season by Susan DeFreitas. This debut novel centers on three college women charged with activist passion and caught up in events they can't control.

Susan DeFreitas will be presenting on “The Small Press Publishing Landscape” at Tsunami Books in Eugene, Oregon on April 2, 2017. Check the Tsunami Books website for more details.

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Review: Astoria by Peter Stark

We read Astoria by Peter Stark for book club and I was swept away by this real life adventure. In 1810, John Jacob Astor, with the blessing of Thomas Jefferson, sent explorers by land and sea to start a new country at the mouth of the Columbia River, where Astoria, Oregon is now located.

Loaded with blue glass beads and other trinkets to trade with the Native Americans for much more valuable furs, the plan was to set up an emporium on the Pacific coast that could be the center of a trade triangle between China, America (meaning the established east coast), and this new country of Astoria in the middle.

That things didn't go as planned is Stark's 400-page understatement and the basis for the subtitle: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival. The things these adventurers went through! And did to themselves and others! Astoria is one of the most exciting books I've ever read, and it is all history.

It is sometimes hard to keep all the people straight, especially when the groups start splintering off. Just who is starving; being captured by or aided by friendly natives; stealing or eating horses; capsizing, canoeing, portaging, or losing whatever vessel they are in; and who is in charge or turning traitor at any time gets a little jumbled. But the epic story is so much grander than the little pieces.

Astoria provides a missing piece of American history between the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the opening of the Oregon Trail. And it is a fascinating piece of history.


NOTES

Astoria inspired my most creative Instagram book picture ever -- the one posted above. Find me on Instagram @giliondumas.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of Astoria listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Book Beginning: Cat's Paw by Mollie Hunt

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

I've been called a crazy cat lady all my life, but I never knew what crazy was until now. 

Cat's Paw by Mollie Hunt. This third installment in Hunt's Crazy Cat Lady mystery series follows Cat's Eyes and Copy Cats.

Lynley Cannon may be retired and volunteering for her local cat shelter, but she has a way of falling into adventures! In Cat's Paw, Lynley accepts an invitation to volunteer at the Cloverleaf Animal Shelter on its own island in the San Juans, but things turn from tranquil to terrifying when dead bodies turn up at the northwest retreat.